Category Archives: Bar
Legends of the Martini – Royal Academy of Arts, London. Belvedere’s a winner.
Hello back room in the Royal Academy. This was a fun little surprise for an hour. This idea is based around an exhibition that’s just a room with a boards on it and some kind of guessing game about martinis. Whatever. You soon spot the giant martini glass you can sit in and have your photo taken in.
We were then taken to a table and intensely taught for one hour about martini making with Belvedere Vodka. And to my surprise it was great fun. And I learned something. You get to learn to say exactly how you like your martini – shaken or stirred – what parts you like in it (forgotten already) and taste different zests. It’s only on until the end of August and as a bit of something to do in what feels like hidden London, go do it. At the end you can buy a very strong martini. If you don’t drink, then don’ go. You won’t like it. Go at night, It feels like you are at a secret London party in a museum.
Sanderson Hotel – Mad Hatter’s Tea Party
Cakes in Wonderland
Like Cake? Like Tea? Look at it people. Look at it. Whoever got to be the pastry chef at the Sanderson must have wept with joy when they said ‘ Let’s do Alice in Wonderland, just use your imagination.’ Every sandwich is rolled into a tube of different colours. Every cake is delicious and cleverly crafted from marshmallow toadstools to carrot shaped meringue. There are an amazing selection of teas on offer that are far from the norm but all delicious. And if you fancy it a cheeky glass of champagne can be added too.
I’ve been put off by the idea of Afternoon teas before as they can be snooty, stingy and just full of people dressed up for a cuppa for no other reason then to blankly stare at each other, wondering why they paid so much. But this one is worth it. We went as part of a baby shower and they let us lounge for a good few hours. Londoners and Tourists Unite.
Marvellous Mystery of how they got the Passion Fruit dessert in the bottle.
Andina – Peruvian Food in East London
Picture taken from Opentable, where you can book a table should you want to. Or you can call the restaurant, they have a phone.
I don’t like raw fish. Andina is a Ceviche Bar. Just so you know what that is as I didn’t, it’s raw fish. My heart sank. It hadn’t been my choice to go for Peruvian, because frankly who would? Menu Menu Menu, my eyes then scanned to quinoa burger. Sad, so sad. But wait then Pig Butty – oh lunch only and I was there for dinner. I was glad their food was for suitable for coeliacs and locally sourced but how about some food that I could have? You can get a whole suckling pig, – if you order it five days before…
But wait there’s a pot at the end of the rainbow, because being on my best behaviour and also being hungry I just decided to go for it. Grilled steak skewers and chicken casseroles, all with weird, but cooked ingredients not previously mentioned and you know what? It was good. It was really good. The doughnuts for dessert made the meal just wish that there had been more choices.
The place has a good vibe. It’s busy, small seating, not posh nosh but street food. The service is really good and friendly but it’s not somewhere you would go and sit for a long time enjoying your food. I liked it, but if you like sushi you will probably like it more.
Manhattan Hotel Bars
No Diving unless you are a tadpole.
OK not the best photo but I had to take a sneaky photo of the pool on the roof top of Jimmy’s Bar in The James Hotel in Manhattan. It is the size of a pond and as shallow as a puddle so I’m glad they put the No Diving because you know. we were all wondering there for at least two seconds.
Now I’m a bit of a hotel bar slag. I love a good cocktail but, Manhattan your service and clientele are disappointing me. Jimmy’s bar had so many questions to get into the place from security I thought I was going through customs again. And surprise surprise, there weren’t that many people upstairs; and neither it seems was a waitress. Oh wait there was one but just not one for us. In fact I’m not sure who she served. One barman on and one man behind him with not much to do but shuffle lemons place to place and look at the floor with a face saying please don’t ask me anything. Getting a drink felt like an eternity
The seats outside by the pond are park benches. Yes the view is great. That is all that is. Google images make it look a lot better which is why I put my rank photo.
Taken from their site so it will look good
The Thomson hotel well that one was even worse. After looking nervously at a very vexed security guard to again get up stairs and feeling like you are dealing with a headmaster we got sent to the top floor only to be sent back down for half hour to the middle bar where the DJ, who did look amazing, decided she would like to play the music really loudly whilst attempting to ‘scratch’ the records. Painful to all involved. Again service pretty dismal.
We made it to the top and these seats are much comfier and the place more relaxed and chilled. Service was much better. However who you get to sit next to is roulette. You’d think if you wanted a private conversation you wouldn’t bother with others listening, but no. We got to listen in on a guy introducing his boyfriend to his very straight parents whilst the boyfriend said the classic line. It’s not just women who have a biological clock, I do too…. I almost spat my drink out at this point. After they moved we thought hurrah and then got the drunk couple making out. Fail….
Taken from their site and looks better than this
But there is a winner and no it may not have a rooftop but for great service and excellent cocktails and that’s the Crosby Street Hotel. We had someone come over and say they could make us anything we wanted. They put food on the table, they smiled without willing us to curl up and die. They genuinely wanted us there. Bar Staff and any Waitresses. Best cocktails, best atmosphere. Only moan is the bathroom is a mile away.And even though these bars are expensive, best priced. I had an espresso Martini. Delicious. I have been there about three times since. So nice to find a place where the staff don’t think they are more important then the customers.
Savannah, Georgia – Day 37-38
Savannah, the place I have been desperate to go to for at least three years since I read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Although different to what I expected, it did not let me down. Day 37 was spent trekking around South Carolina and going to dinner at my road tripster’s sister’s house where one of the highlights of the evening was being called ‘Miss’ . But there was no time to be wasted on the night of day two, especially since I’d had such poor drinking performance on day one. So I settled for Amy Schumer on the comedy network and waited in anticipation for the next day.
But who would have known that such a delight as South of the Border would suddenly appear like an Oasis in the crosslines. A kitsch place that glows neon in the night and sells nothing but the utmost crap that you could buy anywhere in the world in a gift store. It was amazing. Built on the borders of North and South Carolina for no reason other than there is literally nothing else there and people needed a job, Genius. My one regret was that I didn’t stay the night in the motel there. We really screwed up on that one.
South of the Border
As we approached Savannah and River Street, I was a bit nervous. It looked nothing like I had thought and there were a lot of tourists in the way. How dare they have the same idea as us for a Memorial Day Weekend? But the fear and concern melted away when we reached the River Street Inn. One of the loveliest hotels I have ever had the pleasure to stay in. It was unlike a corporate W or Hilton and had its own Southern Charm. The place felt like a huge house with a courtyard in the middle and guest wings to the side. It wasn’t that expensive and I felt like I was in a palatial home. The rooms were spacious with antique furnishings, seating areas and even an honesty bar of snacks and drinks which I had never come across. I honestly ate a Snickers for breakfast.
So my roadster friend was nearly falling out of his skin with excitement that he could drink on the street so this became the main mission for the evening. I hadn’t even realized no one did drink on the streets anywhere, which makes me think that I must usually do it. So off we set. I have no sense of direction and get lost turning around, so always need someone around who does. Even on a grid system I have a problem so my friend led the way round the similar squares of Savannah.
But there’s something about the place; something in the air. I still can’t quite put my finger on it. It almost looks a bit Disney in places but you can tell that chances are behind closed mansion doors there has been debauchery and deliciousness to boot. A hidden way of life behind a white iron fence. Doors closed to you but know that if you are in you will probably sin. I had a feeling Savannah knew how to party.
Street Busker Echo
We ended up where most travellers do at the start, in an Irish pub. When the local busker came along and sat down with his steel stringed guitar I was pleasantly surprised until he said his name was Echo and then all hearts sank including his. We did make him repeat it a few times – but the joke failed. After my Margarita of nuclear strength we marched on to find we had spent too long dilly dallying and food was needed. In a drunk state I am highly impressed I ended up with an amazing three course meal but I’m afraid I can’t tell you where as I was in a drunk state until five am. On the street mostly and a whiskey bar. A messy day one in Savannah.
Washington D.C – Day 36
On our way to Washington D.C
Day 36 of the trip but Day 1 of road trip. My trusty friend and I went away for a five day extravaganza on the road with the ultimate goal being to reach Savannah, Gerogia; a place I had become obsessed about since reading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. It was Memorial Day weekend and getting out of New York past New Jersey took about three hours. It wasn’t the best start but luckily we were very excited and hadn’t annoyed the hell out of each other at that point. First point of call was Dunkin Donuts for coffee, where I learnt this was the best place to get your fast fix. Luckily for me I was with an experienced American road tripper.
By the time we reached the first point of call which was Washington D.C it was night. We were starving so we drove past the White House and all the buildings, said – yeah that’s cool and went to eat some Ethiopian food which I found much more interesting. I’m not one for staring at buildings even if they are important.
After dinner we checked into a local hotel in Arlington which was nice enough but my memory of it is already faint and went to the local dive sports bar. Which isn’t somewhere I would have chosen, but it was the only bar and I like drinking. What I did fail to notice was that my vodka and cranberry’s were being served in pint glasses. So the latter memory of this night is sketchy. I do know I cried for no reason and then wanted to be sick in the night; Classy. At least I didn’t fall off my stool which I have been known to do.
New York – Days 17 to 23
Be good to the people who work in the bars and clubs and they are good to you.
Things I have discovered.
1) Again I ended up somewhere twice in one week that if you sit at the bar and get wasted you end up with not much of a bill to pay. . Be nice to the bartenders and they are really nice to you. They free pour the spirits here so you end up with a glass of vodka and not much else to flavour it. This would never happen in the UK. Never. Well unless you were home doing the pouring.
2). You can get your nails done in every block here and your eyebrows too. How there are so many nail bars and brow bars in business is a mystery. Great prices and can always walk in. What a treat for the hands and feet.
Sickly Sweetness
3) I met an old friend and went walking, walking, walking around the city streets to buy as much sweets to make us sick as possible. The girl in a Disney like candy store looked and sounded like she was sugar rushing to the moon. Never has someone spoke so much crap so fast. I left my friend to deal with her. Note to self, don’t work in candy stores.
4) They like to have big menus here to match the portion size. See the burger menu and the beer menu.
- Any beer or ale you desire. Well alot of it.
5) Clubs here are still like clubs ten years ago. It was a weird experience to be back in a nightclub. I don’t think I had been in one for years. I knew I could have talked to loads of people but I was just enjoying watching the crowd and thinking of days gone by. And as they prance by with their not so creative face paint and sparkly tutus (just the guys) I wondered in ten years time whether they would be the one like me staring back at them thinking – ooh how boring.
6) Everyone has a dog. Big or small. None of these dogs bark. Weird.
7) If you want to play catch the Frisbee in Central park the pre requisite is to be in your early twenties and have a six-pack. Good thing I don’t like catch the Frisbee.
New York Day 16 – Lower East Side
Mary Poppins Comes to the Lower East Side for one night only.
I’ve discovered the app HopStop. This is amazing in NYC for someone like myself who gets lost turning around. The only problem is that it tells you at the end of a subway stop to go in a compass direction which is an immediate fail for someone like me. Luckily on day 16 the friend who called me to do coat check called me as I got out of Canal Street and asked what way the traffic was going and told me it was the wrong way and to turn around, This was repeated on Day 17 too. Day 18 someone showed me that there was a compass on the iphone. Life is complete.
Day 16 was a Saturday and I was out in Soho wandering around with a friend trying out various vessels of white wine in various bars, which is always going to create a more than drunk night. You never know which way it will go but becoming utterly wasted is always a certainity. I get a call from my friend who has the direction of a magnet asking me to do coat check in his bar. I was drunk so it seemed like a fab idea.
I didn’t really want to do coat check but I had blabbed on about how i would do any job the week before if someone asked me just to try it once and of course when you brag it comes back and hits you in the face. So off I went. A thirty something in a twenty somethi ng lower eastside bar. It was like a drunk Mary Poppins had come to town. ‘Oh do have a fabulous time tonight’ I crowed in a posher than normal voice as I tried to contain my OCD with arranging the tickets as they came back. I thought people would be really rude to me but they weren’t and it was fun until the hangover kicked in at 3am The rail behind me, of course, fell down.
One particular individual eyed me up suspiciously and said ‘What’s going on here?
What do you mean ? I relplied . ‘Your’re far too cute to be running coat check’ I went up to his face and said ‘ you are right – I am too cute to be doing coat check. I’m filling in for a friend.‘What do you do when you are not running coat check?’ he enquired.
‘Run An Empire’. I deadpan replied.
Thank you Pinot Grigio you served me well.
worldwideattitude 